In this article we
describe the reactions of prospective English teachers to initial teaching
experiences in urban classrooms. We believe that the results have implications
for the content and structure of teacher preparation programs.

Minorities in the
United States comprise one-third of the population; in some metropolitan areas,
African Americans and Hispanic Americans constitute a majority of the
school-age population. Most urban schools, like the ones reflected in this
study, enroll a majority of "minority" students, and very few
American towns or villages will be homogeneous by the turn of the century. At
the present time, minorities represent less than 12.5 percent of the nation's
teaching force. The majority of prospective teachers are white females, which
stands in sharp contrast to the backgrounds of the students they teach
(Coballes-Vega, 1992). And the trend is not expected to change. The percentage
of high school graduates entering college indicating education as their major
field of study is declining. Clearly, Caucasian teachers are and will be
teaching students of color.

As the instructors
of these prospective English teachers, we aspire to prepare teachers who have
attitudes that celebrate diversity. Among the guidelines that frame our work
are those established by our professional organization, the National Council of
Teachers of English. We seek to prepare teachers who (1) a recognize that all
students can learn and are worthy of a teacher's attention in the English
language arts classroom, (2) desire to use the English language arts curriculum
to help students become familiar with diverse peoples and cultures, and (3)
respect and have enthusiasm for the individual language, dialect, bi-dialectal
competence, and other language variations of each student (NCTE, 1996, p. 11).

However, many
perspective teachers do not hold these attitudes. For example, when asked to
describe what came to mind when hearing phrases such as "developing
nation" or "emerging nation," Kissen (1989) found that
prospective English teachers responded with predominately negative images. We
also know that teachers often have low expectations of students who appear to
be different from themselves, frequently misjudging students' language
abilities (Delpit, 1995; Fraatz, 1987; Heath, 1983; Ladson-Billings, 1994;
Rose, 1989; Taylor, 1991; Taylor & Dorsey-Gaines, 1988).

Foster (1986) argues
that the major source of problems in almost all of our schools is the breakdown
in communication that results from differences in interpretation. Although this
communication breakdown is common in many urban schools, the same problem now
exists in other settings. Educators, familiar with suburban, middle class,
Caucasian students, are now working with young men and women with whom they are
unfamiliar and with whom they have little in common.

Dillon (1989) points
out that the actions of teachers may diminish participation among minority
students and build resentment because their actions are culturally incongruent.
Borich (1994) states that cultural patterns that are unfamiliar to Caucasian
teachers may provide misleading signs of involvement and uninvolvement. In addition,
after years of examining the classroom behaviors of both students and teachers,
Bowers and Flinders (1991) provide examples of how noise levels, use of
classroom space, turn-taking, and negotiating vary across race, social class,
and ethnicity.

Teachers of
different cultures interpret disruptive behaviors of students differently.
Bowers and Flinders (1991), Dillon (1989), and Tharp and Gallimore (1989) all
present arguments that different cultures react differently to nonverbal and
verbal classroom management cues. Eye contact, proximity control, verbal
warnings, and classroom arrangement are interpreted differently by students
from different cultures.

Knowing these
differences is imperative for prospective teachers. Scholars urge awareness of
"cultural congruence," the ways in which teachers alter their speech
patterns, communication styles, and participation structures to resemble more
closely those of the students' own culture (Lipka & Mohatt, 1998). Au and Jordan (1981) use the term
"cultural appropriateness" to described the methods teachers use to
work with native Hawaiian students to improve reading performance. The
experience of the teacher is also a variable. In this study, we examine the
perspectives of novice teachers entering urban settings. Swanson, O'Connor, and
Cooney (1990) report that novice teachers tend to respond in ways that are less
directive and obtrusive than their more experienced counterparts.

With this background
in mind, we set out, over a two-year period (autumn of 1997 through spring of
1999), to document the perspectives and initial teaching experiences of
prospective English teachers in urban classrooms.

Participants

Fifteen prospective
English teachers were initially selected, the entire group in the 1997-1999
cohort group. From this group, six volunteered to participate in a more
detailed study: two Caucasian women (Maxine and Karen), two Caucasian men
(Holden and Steve), and two African American women (Catherine and Bonnie). They
were all novice English teachers. One of the Caucasian women (Karen) was an
undergraduate student at the beginning of the study, starting her senior year
in college. The remaining five were older post-baccalaureate students who had
pursued other careers before entering the teacher preparation program. Martha
and Steve were journalists, Bonnie was a firefighter, Holden was a college
teacher, and Catherine was a businesswoman.

Teacher
Preparation Program

The Secondary
Education Program in which these prospective English teachers are enrolled is
framed by eight themes: (1) learning, (2) instruction, (3) content, (4)
curriculum, (5) context, (6) professional growth and development, (7) grounded
theory and knowledge, and (8) collaboration. The theme of context--that
learning and teaching are inevitably embedded in multiple contexts encompassing
socio-cultural, functional, structural, and temporal dimensions of school
life--is most directly related to the central focus of this study: teaching in
urban settings.

The five-year
teacher preparation program in which these prospective English teachers were
enrolled features a baccalaureate degree in English, a baccalaureate degree in
Education, and field experiences in urban Professional Practice Schools,
including a year-long paid teaching internship. The prospective English
teachers in this study were enrolled jointly in the Department of English and
Comparative Literature and the College of Education.

The English
component includes course work in linguistics, literature, and writing. The
professional education component includes the study of methods, young adult
literature, reading, and the impact of individual, cultural, and socioeconomic
influences on student achievement. The teacher preparation program also
includes seven field experiences in five urban professional practice schools. A
team of public school teachers and university faculty is established in each of
the five sites.

Undergraduates earn
a degree from the Department of English and Comparative Literature.
Post-baccalaureate students are expected to have an equivalent background and
degree. During the first three years of the program, undergraduate students
study primarily, although not exclusively, within the areas of general
education and English. During what is typically the senior year for
undergraduates, students undertake their professional studies, while completing
their arts and sciences degree. This year is known as the professional year.
Post-baccalaureate students begin their program with this professional year of
study.

Like all prospective
students in this program, the six prospective English teachers in this study
completed seven field experiences, one in a college developmental classroom,
and five in junior high and high school English classrooms. The final
experience is a year-long internship in a high school or middle school English
classroom. The data in this study were gathered while the prospective English
teachers participated in these field experiences.

Setting

The research setting
included classrooms and offices on the urban university campus, as well as in
the urban public schools where these prospective English teachers participated
in field experiences and internships.

Timeline

We gathered data
beginning in January of 1998 and continuing through March 1999 when the six
prospective English teachers completed their yearlong internships, the
culmination of their certification program.

Data
Sources/Data Gathering

To capture the
voices of the novice teachers in these urban classrooms, the following data
sources were used: surveys, journal entries, extant program documents, and
field notes. More specifically,

·Prospective
English teachers completed open-ended questionnaires in January 1998 and again
in October 1998.

·Prospective
English teachers' journal entries, related to the teaching of urban students,
were gathered throughout the year.

·Prospective
English teachers were interviewed mid-way through their yearlong internship.

Data
Analysis

The survey and
interview questions were adapted from questions developed by Ladson-Billings
(1994). Following are the adapted questions: (1) Tell me something about your
background? Describe the community where you grew up and the schools you
attended? (2) Can you think of any characteristics that African American young
people bring to the classroom? (3) How much of what you know about teaching
African American young people did you learn from the teacher preparation
program at the university? How much did you learn from actually teaching in the
college developmental setting or in your public school placements? (4) How do
you handle discipline? Are there special things that teachers of African
American students should know about discipline? (5) If you could revamp the
teacher education program at the university so that teachers would be more
effective with African American students, what changes would you make? (6) How
do you think that the schooling experiences of the students you teach differ
from that of white students in middle class communities?

Survey and interview
questions were open-ended and were analyzed using content analysis techniques
established by Holsti (1969) and Viney (1983). A coding system was devised that
raters used to quantify the information in the documents.

Results

After coding and
sub-coding journal entries, portfolio entries, and interview and survey data,
several themes emerged: (1) The value of continuous contact with students, (2)
the candid nature of the urban students, (3) a focus on myself as a teacher or
on the students, (4) spunk and energy, and (5) the irrelevance of coursework.

The Value of Continuous Contact
with Students

The first teaching
experiences for these prospective English teachers were in developmental
reading, writing, and study skills classrooms in the urban, on-campus,
two-year, open-access college. Each novice teacher completed a 60-clock hour
experience working with under prepared college students in racially,
culturally, and socio-economically diverse classes. Due to the fact that these
developmental reading and writing classes were offered on the university campus
at time intervals compatible with those of their own classes, these prospective
English teachers were in class with their students every day.

The continuous
nature of this initial teaching experience with underprepared college students
permitted more meaningful relationships between novice teachers and their
students. However, survey and interview results suggest that later, more
traditional, field experiences in the public schools did not. Relationships
were difficult to establish because of the intermittent and limited contact
possible in the two 60-clock-hour field experiences that the novice teachers
completed in the winter and spring quarters. Novice teachers had to leave the
university campus and visit local urban schools. Due to their other university
classes, usually offered in a Tuesday-Thursday sequence or a
Monday-Wednesday-Friday sequence, novice teachers seldom were able to see their
students on consecutive days. Moreover, the winter and spring field experiences
took place in the middle and at the end of the public school year, after
relationships had already been established between the master teacher and the
students. One novice teacher explained that the "real relationships"
were between the regular teacher and the kids: "I was just sort of thrown
in halfway during the year. They [the young adults in these public school
classrooms] knew that I was temporary and that my opinion did not matter in the
end.”

Finally, again, in
the yearlong internship, when the prospective English teachers were full time
teachers, they had continuous contact with their students. This final
culminating experience was viewed as the most realistic and most meaningful
aspect of the program.

The Candid Nature of the Urban
Students

Sheets and Gay
(1996) note that Caucasian students regard teaching abilities and classroom
management skills as the basis for determining whether a teacher is likable and
whether they should conform to classroom procedures. African American students,
on the other hand, are less likely than other ethnic groups to concede to
teachers' authority and directives when they feel unjustly accused or have not
been given ample opportunity to state their case.

Some novice
teachers, as they entered their final yearlong internship, became aware of
these unique interaction styles. Holden, for example, a Caucasian who had
attended urban elementary and secondary schools, taught in a predominately
African American urban high school in his yearlong internship. He described his
students as "demonstrative."

I think that they're more vocal
and they want their feelings to be expressed at that moment in front of
everyone. Sort of like a performance. If there is a conflict with students they
want it taken care of right then, so they will raise their voices and shout and
yell and try to settle any difference they have. I don't mean shout and yell in
a negative way. It's just that they're very demonstrative.

Holden found this
demonstrativeness helpful.

In some ways that's what makes
them easier to deal with for me. I don't have to sift through a lot of mystery.
Yeah, I guess that is what I mean by demonstrative. In some ways that
demonstrative nature is tied to honesty and you really get an honest take on
them, like there's no mystery.

A Focus on Myself as a Teacher
or on the Students

Although several
novice teachers worried about their safety as they entered their first public
school field experience, most simply felt out of place. One novice teacher said
that she was struck by seeing "so many white teachers and so few black
teachers and all of these black students." I am worried, said another,
"that students will feel that I don't understand their urban outlook or
life." Another was concerned about "how these black students will
react to me, a white teacher." Upon entering a nearly all-black high
school setting, one novice teacher explained that he was told by his
school-based mentor that there was "no way for me to understand the
backgrounds of my students."

Some of the
prospective teachers were simply uncomfortable being among young people. Others
were still facing anxiety about speaking in front of large groups of teenagers.
One explained that "I am worried that they will not value education."
Another explained that she wanted "respect not just because I am the
authority figure." Racial, cultural, linguistic, and cultural differences
were more obvious to the prospective teachers in their first field experience
than in their final internship. In October of the internship year, one prospective
teacher explained that "poverty and neglect are bigger issues than
race." Another explained that "it doesn't really have much to do with
race. I think that it is all about class."

The
novice teachers in this study who focused on their students rather than on
themselves had more meaningful interactions inside and outside the classroom.
This was evident in their first field experience. Course evaluation data
revealed that the college developmental students viewed some of the prospective
teachers as "real." For example, when Holden asked them about their
high school experiences and shared some of his, the students viewed him as
"cool." Holden wrote, "They respected me and felt that I could
be cool with them. It seems that I had a positive relationship with them."

Similarly, Karen was
able to share something of herself with the college students in her first field
experience. She copied drafts of papers she had written in high school and
shared them with the college students she was teaching. She took some risks,
revealed something of her own struggles as a writer, and helped these basic
writers better understand the drafting process. In Karen’s survey, she wrote
"I interacted with these students by attempting to demonstrate a genuine
concern and interest in their thoughts and knowledge."

Other prospective
teachers kept their distance. In the developmental writing class, Martha
announced, "I am the teacher and you are the student.” For teachers like
Martha, personal interactions with students were infrequent. These novice
teachers viewed teaching as one-way communication and were often convinced that
the students "just didn't get it!" Steve, another prospective teacher
in this college developmental setting, was not sure how to connect with his
students. In a case study of one of his students, he wrote, "I profiled
one black male. There was some uneasiness between us, but I can't say if it was
from race or the new student-teacher relationship." Even though Steve was
with his college developmental students for the entire ten-week academic
quarter, he was unable to establish the type of relationship that Holden and
Karen had established. His focus was on himself rather than on his students.

Like most beginning teachers,
classroom control dominated the thinking of these six novice teachers. The fact
that they were in unfamiliar urban settings only served to increase their
concerns. Grossman (1995) states that students from different ethnic
backgrounds often come to school with dissimilar expectations and preferences
for disciplinary styles because people from different cultures have their own
standards of acceptable and unacceptable
behavior. For example, in many cases, Caucasian teachers experience difficulty
disciplining African American children because they do not "connect"
culturally. The teachers do not behave as African American children expect
authority figures to behave. It seems that when Caucasian teachers practice the
discipline techniques they are usually taught in college, African American
children often "run over them" (Baumrind, 1971; Kelley, Power, &
Wimbush, 1992; Kelley, Sanchez-Hucles, & Walker, 1993; Nweke, 1994).

As novice teachers, both the Caucasian and
the African American teachers in our study struggled with classroom control.
However, some focused on themselves while others focused on the students. In
her very first field experience, Martha, a Caucasian teacher, encountered an
interpersonal barrier. She wrote: "I didn't really 'know' any students
more personally than others." Catherine, on the other hand, felt that
being an African American and growing up in an African American community
helped her understand the interactions she observed. "I think that is
probably the advantage that African American teachers have when teaching
African American children. We've grown up in the community."

Catherine, an upper middle class African
American teacher with teenagers in a neighboring suburban school district, is
teaching in an urban high school. She explains,

I think
that the parents in middle class districts hold teachers accountable for their
kids, what they learn, what they get on that test. It is not their child; it is
you and what you are teaching. Because parents hold those teachers accountable,
the teachers hold the kids accountable. When I go into a parent conference, I'm
the same way. The few inner city parents I have seen at conferences basically
want to know how's he doing, how's she doing. They're concerned if they're
being good in class, you know, that their behavior is good, that kind of thing.
Whereas, I think that people in upper class neighborhoods are more interested
in grades. They value that grade. They know that 'As' lead to Harvard and 'Cs'
do not. Urban parents want their kinds to get out of high school. If it's a
'C,' it's okay. They just want to get them out of high school and I think that
is the difference. I really do.

In another example, near the end of his
preparation program, during his year-long internship in a predominately African
American urban high school, Holden was able to focus on his students rather
than on himself.

One
difference I see is that punishment is different for these kids. The suburban
white kids, they lose a lot of privileges and they lose a lot of material
things because of their behavior. 'If you do this, I'll take this away from
you.' So, they're sort of conditioned at an early age and I was kind of that
way. If you're gonna do something, you are going to do it to get away with it.
The urban kids that I work with, a lot of them don't have that, that threat
that they're going to get a lot of material goods taken away. A lot of them
don't have many material things. These kids can be just as devious, but I don't
think there's that sort of secretiveness of I am going to do all these things
and get away with it.

Spunk,
Energy and Orality

The novice teachers who established the most effective
relationships often referred to the "spunk and energy" of their urban
African American students. For example, during the first college developmental
field experience, Bonnie, one of the African American teachers wrote:
"African American students bring a special spunk into the classroom. I
like spunk." Karen provided another insight when she wrote: "African
American students were a lot of fun, had energy, and talent." Some prospective
English teachers seemed to draw vitality from the energy of their students.
Karen, for example, said,

I felt an
immediate relationship with several of the students. There were two students,
one male and one female, both African American, with whom I just clicked. These
two exemplify the reasons I want to teach. They brought out an energy that I
really like about myself.

Later in the yearlong internships, the
prospective teachers spoke of the rich oral language of the African American
students. When asked if African American children bring anything unique to the
classroom, Catherine, an African American teacher, exclaimed,

Oh God,
they bring a lot to the classroom. They are so verbal, so oral. I think that
they are just super sensitive kids. They're really sensitive, really aware of
their immediate environment. They're talkative and have a lot to say. And,
that's cool. All of them are so different, but all of them have a lot to say.

Holden, a Caucasian teacher, describes a
setting where he was drawn to the unique oral culture of his African American
high school students.

You know we
took a field trip last week, two weeks ago, to the zoo and within five minutes,
you know, the kids were singing on the bus, bur not camp fire style. One side
of the bus would sing. It was all black kids in the back of the bus. It was our
freshman class, which is like ninety-five percent black. And, one side of the
bus would sing a lyric real quick and the other side would respond to it and it
would be organized in like seconds, you know, it didn't take anything at all.
They sang the whole way to the zoo. It was incredible. It was really good time.

Holden described a similar love of oral language in
the classroom. When reading Romeo and Juliet or when writing poetry, his students
begged him to allow them to get up in front of the class.

You know,
when I had them write poems, they wanted to read to the class. They didn't just
want to turn them in. I know that I was shy about reading things and still am
to people, but when I collected their poems and I let them read them the first
thing they said was, "Are we going to do this again?" They liked that
performance, getting up and presenting what they know orally.

The
Irrelevance of Coursework

There was little evidence that these novice teachers
perceived that college course work helped them create effective pedagogy for
urban African American students. Some, when pressed in the interview,
remembered course work devoted to varieties of English and Black English
vernacular. Others recalled being asked to read poetry and prose written by
African American authors. However, as one novice teacher explained in the
fourth month of her year-long internship: "You know, you take from this
class what you need, but for the most part you get it in your practical
experience." Holden, near the conclusion of his yearlong internship
explained "I think you either have it or you don't, you know, and that you
can't be taught how to teach in this kind of setting." He explains that
most suburban teachers do not really have an understanding of urban settings
and they can't expect to be taught that in a college classroom. "You can't
walk into a class and say, 'Teach me about Black people.' But people expect
that."

Conclusions and Implications

We believe that the results have
implications for the content and structure of teacher preparation programs.

Increase
the quantity and quality of field experiences

All of prospective teachers found the field
experiences, especially the yearlong internships, to be of the greatest value,
although the lack of continuity in some of the earlier field experiences was
often frustrating. Coursework, in general, was perceived to be unrelated to the
real work of teaching.

Have
prospective teachers become involved in the communities where they will teach

When asked how the teacher preparation program could
be improved, Catherine suggested that all prospective teachers spend time in
the communities where they will be teaching.

I don't
know how you would do it. Of course, any time you get to know people you can
learn to appreciate them for who they are and what they bring to the table.
Without that you only have what you know to go on, good, bad, or indifferent.
Teachers should work in community centers with teenagers as a recreation
coordinator or something that exposes them to the language, exposes them to the
attitudes.

Varied
and continuous experiences in urban settings will help prospective teachers
grasp the complexity of the lives of the urban students they teach

During two years of field experiences in urban
settings, most of these prospective English teachers grew to focus less on
themselves and more on their students. The racial differences became less
obvious and issues of poverty and class became more conspicuous. As Holden
asserts at the end of his interview, "Well, urban kids don't have the same
resources, which is immoral. The fact that each of my kids doesn't have a
computer is terrible." Like many of his fellow interns, Holden believed
that there were lower expectations as well. In general, most of these
prospective teachers, by the spring of their internship year, recognized the
complexity of these urban settings and the unique qualities that urban students
bring to the classroom.

Through
varied and continuous field experiences, prospective teachers can come to view
the unique cultural qualities of urban children differently

Many of these prospective teachers found that their
notions of urban students changed as a result of their immersion in urban
classrooms. Many who observed a "love of language," "spunk and
energy," and "an awareness of their awareness of their immediate
environment" relinquished long held stereotypes. After two years in varied
urban settings, these prospective teachers, who once saw only lack of self-control,
now saw honesty, energy, and talent. Some even spoke of the professional
vitality they drew from the energy of their students. The most talented of
these prospective English teachers drew on these strengths to help them write
poetry and introduce them to Shakespeare's plays. This can only be achieved
through extensive field experiences in urban settings.

Delpit, L. (1995). Other
people's children: Cultural conflict in the classroom. New York: New Press.

Dillon, D. (1989). Showing them
I want to learn and that I care about who they are: A microethnography of
social organization of secondary low track English reading classroom. In G.D.
Borich (Ed.), Observing skills for effective teaching (pp. 149-158). New York:
Macmillan.

National Council of Teachers of
English's Standing Committee on Teacher Preparation and Certification. (1996).
Guidelines for the preparation of teachers of English language arts. Urbana,
IL: National Council of Teachers of English.